Grayson Waller credits Rhea Ripley, The IIconics for making WWE career feel possible

  • Ian Carey
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Grayson Waller didn’t think a career in pro wrestling was possible until he saw Australian wrestlers such as The Iiconics and Rhea Ripley succeed in WWE.

Waller didn’t make his pro debut until he was 27. He recently told Chris Van Vliet that the lack of Australian wrestlers on television contributed to his not getting into the industry sooner.

“I didn’t really watch any Australian independent wrestling. I didn’t know it existed,” Waller said. “I just saw WWE. Then I got into Ring of Honor, CZW, Chikara, like real random American Indy wrestling. I rarely saw Australians. There would be maybe one or two here or there. It didn’t seem like a possibility. But then when I saw Peyton (Royce) and Billie (Kay) get on NXT – They are from the same school as me – Then I was like, ‘Oh, wow.’ And they came back and did a little seminar, and I’m like, ‘It’s possible.'”

“I think Rhea’s the one who really cemented it. Like, I met her just before she left, and then she was doing such big things. I think she showed the rest of Australia, ‘Hey, this is possible.’ And that opened the door. Then you get Bronson, you got Indy there already, you had TMDK doing really good stuff before they left. There’s so many people and now I think the Australians are seeing, ‘Hey, this is possible. Hey, there’s people there.’ And now we’re going to properly takeover.”

Waller also discussed Tenille Dashwood’s first WWE run and how that opened the door for more Australian talent.

“I don’t think she gets enough credit. Obviously, she was one of the first women who really was able to star in NXT,” Waller said of Dashwood. “I just hadn’t met her in Australia so I never had that connection of someone I’ve met and seen doing such big things.”

Waller also joked that before Dashwood, the only Australian he’d seen in WWE was Nathan Jones, “The Colossus of Boggo Road.”

“Nathan Jones fell over at WrestleMania. Like, that’s who I want to be,” Waller said.

The full episode of Insight with Chris Van Vliet is available below:

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Ian Carey
Ian Carey

Ian Carey is a writer from Toronto, Ontario, Canada, whose work has been featured in NOW Magazine, The Huffington Post, and more. A lifelong wrestling aficionado born in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, he has covered the industry for a decade and a half. He joined the f4wonline.com team in 2019.